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I don't plan on buying Resistance 3 anyways, so I'd like to say that I'm boycotting it, but if Uncharted 3 comes with it...........

Sony has always been a little more aggressive in fighting piracy, but now they're apparently ramping up their fight against used games in a struggling economy -- classless move. I'm assuming the PSN pass will take the place of EA's PS3 codes, but I'm not sure. I would guess that every first, second, and third-party publisher will be able to opt in to the program.

I suppose the eventual goal is digital distribution being the only way to buy/sell games, eliminating used game sales and cutting out the middle man. Since game retailers like GameStop apparently make a ton of their money off of used game sales, I'm guessing a ton of jobs are going to be lost in the next few years. It's going to be Blockbuster -> Netflix all over again.

The veep went on to say that EA's Origin platform is a choice for game buyers, not an exclusive outlet for all of the publisher's content going forward. Along with its developers, EA is "working to integrate more and more between the game and Origin," but DeMartini is "absolutely not at this point saying, 'hey, it's Origin versus Steam.' It's never been about that."

However, DeMartini's words and EA's actions don't exactly line up. According to the company's policy, EA wants to "continue offering our games for sale on all major download sites." Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't count, it seems, as that title will only be available for download from its Origin service.

"We're not competition, just a choice." That's what competition is, dumbass.

Enter: Nyko Zoom. Launching on August 23 for $30, Nyko's clip-on lens claims to enable Kinect games within 40% less space, essentially fooling the sensor into thinking you're way over there when you're RIGHT HERE.

For those of you with small living rooms and big dreams for the kinect.

"Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox is that we're extremely limited in what we can do," said executive producer of production services Yves Jacquier. "It's a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time.

"We think that the next generation of consoles won't have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what's the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?"

When's the last time you touched your Wii controller â€” other than to wipe a layer of dust off it?

Although Nintendo's revolutionary motion-control game machine launched in 2006 with lots of compelling software, the days of Wii Sports, Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy are long over. Nintendo promised Wii would appeal to hard-core gamers who love deeper, more traditional gaming adventures, but these types of games have become fewer and far between. Some publishers have figured out how to sell casual games on the platform (see Ubisoft's smash success Just Dance), but the rest have abandoned Wii in droves.

Set for release on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this fall, the game will feature three different game modes spread across six locations and 18 crash junctions. Crash! will also make use of the Autolog leaderboard/social tech that Criterion introduced with last year's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Crash! will also be supporting Kinect for Xbox 360, with two teams competing against one another while using motion gestures to control and crash vehicles.

Are any of you guys into the Dolphin emulator? I think the concept of recreating a platform with higher resolution (HD) and adding features is pretty darn cool. I think that Dolphin and the PS 2 emulator cover probably the most modern gaming consoles.

We can argue attractiveness and value, but technologically I find this pretty darn cool.

They just made Hot Pursuit and are rumored to be working on Hot Pursuit 2. When would they have the time?

Originally Posted by besson3c

Are any of you guys into the Dolphin emulator? I think the concept of recreating a platform with higher resolution (HD) and adding features is pretty darn cool. I think that Dolphin and the PS 2 emulator cover probably the most modern gaming consoles.

We can argue attractiveness and value, but technologically I find this pretty darn cool.

Yes, most of us saw your original thread.

Whatever cool factor the emulator has is overridden by the chore that is running emulators.

According to Mathieulh, the recent build of Gears of War 3 that appeared on torrent sites earlier this month may have been inadvertently leaked by Microsoft themselves. A Google query for â€ścodify.com xboxâ€ť will reveal Microsoftâ€™s Xbox 360 Codify page which may have, at one point, offered up Gears of War 3 for grabs. The offending pages and files have been taken offline, however Google Cache has record accessible GOW3 files on the site.

The incriminating results included a page that revealed the directory for the Gears of War 3 files, only marking it â€śconfidentialâ€ť in the folder name and providing no other securities against unauthorized access. Yet another page revealed game assets. Itâ€™s unclear if this was the source of the leak, however it is a possibility given that the Gears of War 3 â€śConfidentialâ€ť directory was accessible at one time by the average joe.

It's a toss up between enthralling incompetence and devious viral marketing.

I imagine you're referring to King of Kong and such. I don't have any interest, and if anyone here does they haven't mentioned it so far. My love of arcade gaming is limited to a few titles, and I doubt I'd watch a doc on any of them save the six-player two screen X-Men.

Another revelation about Crash! was provided by Criterion creative director Alex Ward at EA's summer showcase. Ward told Giant Bomb that the project started on Wii before it became Crash!. "It was a user-created game where you drew a road with the wand, and we thought, if we made Crash Mode, you could make it all yourself." Criterion worked on that until discovering that it was "quite boring."

In short, Netflix is separating their DVD business and their streaming business. Here is the new price breakdown:

Unlimited Streaming w/o DVDs - $7.99

1 DVD w/o Streaming - $7.99
2 DVDs w/o Streaming - $11.99

1 DVD with Unlimited Streaming - $15.98

This will, no doubt, come as a shock to subscribers who are used to paying $9.99 for one DVD with unlimited streaming who are about to be hit with a 60% price increase.

Listen to this bullshit excuse for the price increase...

Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didnâ€™t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering.

In less than a year I had 1 DVD plus streaming offered at $8.99. Now I gotta pay $15.98? Jesus! That's a 78% increase in price! Considering that Netflix put a shit ton of video rental stores out of business and now wants to separate the DVD from streaming packages, it almost feels like a big F you.

I don't know. I guess I may just stick with streaming come September. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Yeah, I was considering posting that in the Lounge... considering our large Netflix contingent here it makes as much sense here as anywhere else.

Originally Posted by KCrosbie

In less than a year I had 1 DVD plus streaming offered at $8.99. Now I gotta pay $15.98? Jesus! That's a 78% increase in price! Considering that Netflix put a shit ton of video rental stores out of business and now wants to separate the DVD from streaming packages, it almost feels like a big F you.

Netflix is one of the few services that I've felt could increase the price some and I wouldn't complain. But they've really gone crazy here â€“ the lack of a bundle plan is insulting. There has to be a large contingent of people out there that both stream and receive discs and I think they're gambling that they'll be able to double-dip on them.

"We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games," said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. "By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience." In case it's not obvious, we'll spell it out for you: O-R-I-G-I-N.

But I still had one important question for EA that remains fairly unanswered: Why charge full price for recently launched first-party titles?

While I was at the EA Summer Showcase last week, I asked a few people about these concerns of mine. To my disappointment, I never really got a straight answer; either the question was ignored altogether, or I would receive replies like, â€śSometimes it costs more to distribute digitally.â€ť And when I asked how that was possible, the best answer I got was, â€śIn most cases, retailers buy in bulk and receive huge discounts for doing so. When a company distributes over a digital platform, they have to worry about bandwidth and other digital variables.â€ť So, EA is kind of like Costco then?

None of this really made any sense. With the labor that goes behind the manufacture and shipping of tangible mediums, along with the profit percentage that retailers make, the price of server space should be pennies in comparison. Bandwidth is dirt cheap, especially to billion-dollar companies like EA.

So I leave you with a question: What's your incentive to buy a game through Origin if youâ€™re given the choice to buy a game at a retail store for the same price? Perhaps

It's interesting, EA wants to take a chunk out of Steam's pie, but either they're too greedy to actually compete or too stupid. Have you guys ever seen prices when a new Walâ€˘Mart or Sheetz rolls into town? They do insane pricing to lure you away. EA is so cocksure or so greedy that they're just blasting away at their customers full-throttle betting they'll pay premium because...?

When asked by a viewer if it was normal for adults to play videogames, Gifford responded with one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking answers she has ever given in her career: ""No, that's weird ... Xbox."

Deutsch agreed that it was unacceptable, adding, "No, the answer's no. When you're in your thirties, there should be something more on your mind, your attention, than video games." Kotb added to the discussion by referring to gamers as, â€śthose weird ones in the basement."

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained in a press release, "This acquisition is the next step in the acceleration of Ubisoft's free-to-play strategy following last year's launch of Settlers Online, CSI Crime City and Heroes Kingdoms, as well as the recent beta launch of our ambitious title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online." Those all sound just fine -- we just hope Owlient doesn't lose sight of its Heaven-Pony roots under its new management.

Yeah, I was considering posting that in the Lounge... considering our large Netflix contingent here it makes as much sense here as anywhere else.

Netflix is one of the few services that I've felt could increase the price some and I wouldn't complain. But they've really gone crazy here â€“ the lack of a bundle plan is insulting. There has to be a large contingent of people out there that both stream and receive discs and I think they're gambling that they'll be able to double-dip on them.

I assumed bandwidth related costs were going through the roof.

I suspect quite a few people are in the same position as me - I pay for the streaming and 1 DVD service, but I can't even remember the last time I got a DVD from them. This will just push me over to streaming only, which is really all I'm using it for anyway.

I'm sure I'm an exception but I run the two-dvd plan (Hey, HBO, try to include more than three episodes on a ****ing disc). My problem is I go disc heavy in the winters and do practically none in the summer.

If they make adding/dropping plans easy, I may try to be proactive enough to just constantly change my plan depending on time of year.

Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?

Status:
Online

Jul 13, 2011, 02:04 PM

I almost started a Lounge thread about Netflix but searched and found this. Looks like I'll be dropping the one DVD per month and going to Redbox when I want a new release or Blu-Ray.

The stupid thing is that they're not restructuring their plans. They are adding a DVD-only option and hiking prices on everything else. Their "pick your plan" page still has a radio button for unlimited streaming + 1 disc at a time, which is the plan I have now.

Now if only the AppleTV would stop dropping frames I might almost be happy.

I'm sure I'm an exception but I run the two-dvd plan (Hey, HBO, try to include more than three episodes on a ****ing disc). My problem is I go disc heavy in the winters and do practically none in the summer.

A little off topic but if you ever get an iPad, I highly recommend you get the HBO Go app.

Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?

Status:
Online

Jul 13, 2011, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Stogieman

I haven't experienced this. Does it happen often?

All the time, Netflix and YouTube at least. I don't notice when streaming straight from my computer (jail broken). And it's regular. I can time it happening every 20 seconds on the nose during some videos.

"Our view is that the next generation of consoles, if there are consoles, are going to be less about technology and more about service orientation of the gamer."

Translation: "Next gen, we will focus on nickel and diming everyone, rather than producing engaging, quality games."
I'd be shaken if this were coming from a relevant publisher. Better hope this isn't a case of them speaking aloud what everyone else is thinking.
(Isn't that what this gen has already morphed into? How could they make it worse? Don't answer that)